112 Weddings

2014 | 95 minutes

112 Weddings is a bittersweet portrait of the state of modern marriage, as interpreted by a New York wedding photographer. Doug Block filmed 112 couples at their weddings over the years, witnessing them at the high point of their mutual romantic intoxication. In the moment, he conceived a great affection for them, and then never saw them again.

With that in mind, he tracked some of the same couples down, years later, with the aim of discovering how the vows panned out in the long run. Of those who agreed to be interviewed, one couple was divorced, one in the throes of divorce, and several more had clearly been through the marital wringer, particularly those with sick children or experience of depression.

One spouse is often prepared to admit difficulties more openly than the other (with Tom and Yoonhee, Tom keeps warning his wife sotto voce: Its not True Confessions”; while Augie, in turn, insensitively advises viewers Dont get married, as his wife Jenn smiles painfully through the implied insult).

Judging from this cross-section, marriage is where dreams go to get wise, or sometimes to die. Yet, this portrait of a voluntary conspiracy  as the couples trudged together through success, disappointment and gradual weight gain  still often proved enormously touching.